Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE).
To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we’ll use ROE to better understand Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NSE:SUNPHARMA).

Over the last twelve months Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has recorded a ROE of 9.6%.
One way to conceptualize this, is that for each ₹1 of shareholders’ equity it has, the company made ₹0.096 in profit.

How Do You Calculate ROE?

It’s easy to understand the ‘net profit’ part of that equation, but ‘shareholders’ equity’ requires further explanation.
It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings.
You can calculate shareholders’ equity by subtracting the company’s total liabilities from its total assets.

What Does Return On Equity Signify?

ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business.
The ‘return’ is the yearly profit.
The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making.
So, all else equal, investors should like a high ROE.
Clearly, then, one can use ROE to compare different companies.

Does Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Have A Good ROE?

Arguably the easiest way to assess company’s ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry.
Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification.
If you look at the image below, you can see Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has a similar ROE to the average in the pharmaceuticals industry classification (11%).

How Does Debt Impact Return On Equity?

Most companies need money — from somewhere — to grow their profits.
That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt.
In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth.
In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders’ equity.
In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries’s Debt And Its 9.6% ROE

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has a debt to equity ratio of 0.26, which is far from excessive.
Its ROE is rather low, and it does use some debt, albeit not much. That’s not great to see.
Careful use of debt to boost returns is often very good for shareholders. However, it could reduce the company’s ability to take advantage of future opportunities.

But It’s Just One Metric

Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies.
Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality.
If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I’d generally prefer the one with higher ROE.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you’ll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock.
It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth — and how much investment is required going forward.
So you might want to check this FREE visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

Simply Wall St is a financial technology startup focused on providing unbiased, high-quality research coverage on every listed company in the world. Our research team consists of equity analysts with a public, market-beating track record. Learn more about the team behind Simply Wall St.

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